By starting the political process of placing a measure on the November 2014 statewide ballot, San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed has rekindled a debate over breaking the retirement promises made to public employees — a debate that had rightly begun to die down in California.

On Tuesday, Reed filed paperwork with the state Attorney General’s Office as a first step to asking voters to alter the state’s constitution in regard to the pensions promised to current police officers, firefighters, teachers and other public workers.

Before that, Reed had already begun raising hundreds of thousands of dollars from out-of-state billionaires and giving speeches to conservative audiences, peddling his idea.

Reed is an interesting pitchman for a pensions overhaul because the change he pushed for in his own city, Measure B, remains tied up in court, unable to be implemented. It’s also notable that of California’s largest cities — Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, Fresno, Sacramento — no leaders are supporting Reed in his efforts.

California voters are coming to realize that the sky-is-falling hype whipped up by critics of public employee pension systems is largely manufactured. They’re seeing reforms and huge concessions from unions, a state pension fund earning healthy returns on its investments, and politically motivated out-of-state billionaires bankrolling anti-pension measures. More importantly, they understand that hard-working public servants — who earn middle-class wages and retire, on average in California, on just $26,000 a year, often without Social Security benefits — are not to blame for the budget problems face by cities and counties.

Just look at a recent public opinion survey from reputable California pollster Dave Metz. The survey showed that 63 percent of likely voters oppose “allowing public employers to unilaterally cut retirement benefits for current employees.” That opposition cut across all demographics — male, female, young, old, white, black, Latino, those in the state’s four major metropolitan regions, Democrats, independents, and even nearly half of Republicans.

The overwhelming opposition to Reed’s proposal may be because Californians are satisfied with Gov. Brown’s dramatic pension reforms. Those kicked in Jan. 1, reducing pension benefits for new public workers and raising minimum retirement ages — changes that are estimated to save the state nearly $100 billion over the coming years.

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Californians may also have seen that the state’s primary public pension fund is financially on solid ground — in better shape today than when Jerry Brown was governor three decades ago. Earlier this year, the California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS) announced it had earned a 12.5 percent return on its investments over the fiscal year. That far exceeds its own forecast of just 7.5 percent. To get a longer-term view, consider that CalPERS has earned an average of 8 percent annually over the past two decades, despite several years of recession. Any assertions that the system cannot fully fund retirement obligations are pure fabrication.

Or, California voters may be soured on anti-pension crusaders because they see the money flowing from out-of-state interests to bankroll these kinds of ballot measures. Take John Arnold, a former Enron executive and hedge fund billionaire from Texas who, according to his Arnold Foundation, spent $7 million in just two years on efforts to overturn pensions across the country, including in California. Mayor Reed asked an Arnold-affiliated organization to donate $200,000 to support his efforts, according to news reports. For many voters, that’s reminiscent of the Koch Brothers-connected nonprofit from Arizona that dumped $11 million into political races in California last year.

Whatever the reason, it’s clear Californians aren’t falling for the Chicken Little story being told about pensions by Wall Street and by conservative politicians.

For voters who are concerned with pensions, they want any changes to be made at the bargaining table, not on a statewide political soapbox. That’s exactly what’s happening.

Over the course of the past several years public employee unions in more than 400 jurisdictions throughout our state have sat down at the bargaining table and agreed to concessions that have helped cities and counties balance their budgets. That kind of real progress ground out cooperatively between public employee union leadership and local government officials doesn’t get nearly the amount of press attention it deserves.

Reed may succeed in lighting flame again to the manufactured pension crisis, but he’s unlikely to convince Californians that there’s any reason to break the retirement promises made to current public safety officers, teachers and other middle-class public servants.

Dave Low is chairman for Californians for Retirement Security, a coalition representing 1.6 million active and retired public employees.